Thirty Years in the Press

The interviews

Interviews have always been a major part of my journalism. From my articles for a school newspaper and an alternative press in Chicago to Autonomia, the interview is one of my most practiced, skilled and methodical formats. I possess a natural (and arguably inappropriate) curiosity in the company of stars, strangers and ordinary people. Even as a boy, if I wanted to know something, whether the cause of a handicapped person’s handicap or the cause of an action in the presence of someone in authority, such as a firefighter or police officer, I walked up and asked what was happening and why. To family, friends’ parents, neighbors, teachers, priests, nuns and policemen, I think I must’ve been an exhausting child. As I started to read about sex in books I discovered—and in a magazine titled Playboy—I became fascinated by topics, questions, answers—especially in interviews. Playboy’s monthly interview, in particular, influenced and formed my philosophy of conducting the proper interview.

Early and Lost Interviews

Many of my interviews are unpublished. Many are unrecorded. Some are permanently lost. A variety of reasons explains the losses, including my technical mistakes. As I explored writing, reporting and journalism as a career in New York and Chicago—while auditioning, performing and pursuing a professional dance and modeling career—I failed to acquire tools, tips and best practices. Lost early interviews, all properly and professionally proposed, accepted and conducted, include exchanges with:

• Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry

• Psychologist and author Nathaniel Branden

• Fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo, whom I met and interviewed at his studio in New York City

Other lost, unpublished or scuttled interviews include several with Objectivist intellectuals, including some who knew Ayn Rand. Almost all involve mistakes for which I take responsibility—those who agreed to terms yet refused to honor agreements, expiring recorder batteries, insufficiently kept or maintained notes—and certain interviews were speculative assignments that, for various reasons (sometimes, due to breaking news), were cancelled, postponed or did not go to press.

My early interviews afforded valuable lessons.

Literary Interviews

Shortly after I was assigned my first paid journalism—an article about Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead in the Glendale News-Press 30 years ago—I decided to streamline my journalism. I had started writing about books for a daily newspaper in LA’s San Fernando Valley. These were features and book reviews. My editor would assign an article to write after gauging my interest, give me a review copy of the book—sometimes with days’ notice before deadline—and I read (or skimmed) the book, meeting and interviewing the author to write the feature (or write a review). I adopted this process for production work on The Leonard Peikoff Show radio program, which afforded the opportunity to meet or schedule Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page and Helter Skelter and Outrage author Vincent Bugliosi, both of whom I later interviewed (Bugliosi in person at his home).

I figured that, by writing about books of interest, I’d acquire a library from which to continue self-education as I earned a living and reputation as a journalist. Accordingly, my literary interviews during the Nineties and into the 21st century were a wide-ranging series of intellectually-themed exchanges with various bestselling writers such as David Halberstam—whom I met and interviewed twice—Ron Chernow, Gail Sheehy, Leigh Steinberg and Lucian Truscott, each of whom I met and interviewed in person about their newest books. I was also assigned to review new books by bestselling authors such as John Grisham and Richard Dawkins for the Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News.

Whenever possible, I conducted an author interview in person—usually during the Los Angeles leg of a publisher’s promotional tour—which allowed me to learn about writing, literature, publishing, publicity, journalism and perfecting the interview, while letting me make an independent impression with an author. These interviews let me lose any inhibitions about meeting and interviewing prominent people—which I quickly did—and learn to ask (and demand answers to) penetrating questions.

Here are a few pictures pertaining to Walt Disney’s authorized biographer, Neal Gabler, whom I met and interviewed during a visit to Disney’s studio on my birthday.

Presidential Campaign Interviews

In the late Nineties, I made a practice of writing about American politics, from an op-ed against hate crime legislation (“Thought is Not a Crime”)—which is now the law—for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other newspapers, to interviews with presidential candidates and contenders. An editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer who contracted me to write articles asked me to conduct interviews with the upcoming presidential election candidates from both parties for a weekend and Sunday series.

After studying logistics, I researched, pursued, scheduled, met and conducted the candidate interviews throughout 1999 and into 2000. These were extensive interviews—subsequently published in the Detroit News, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Casper Star-Tribune, Arizona Republic and newspapers around the U.S. and quoted on NBC’s Meet the Press—for which I carefully and concisely formulated inquiries.

An interview can be a uniquely revealing conversation. In retrospect:

• An interview with George W. Bush in Los Angeles gave a glimpse into the entrenched power and smallness of Washington, DC’s political establishment

• Meeting Democrat Bill Bradley—Vice President Al Gore’s only serious challenger for the presidential nomination—offered a lesson in the confluence of professional athletics and politics

• John McCain’s contempt for free speech—Pat Buchanan cancelling at the last minute after I bought a plane ticket—Lamar Alexander’s rationality, enthusiasm and stamina—Dan Quayle’s perspective on the presidency—Steve Forbes talking about his dad and giving me his magazine’s Capitalist Tool “kit” at his office in the Forbes Building—these are some lasting impressions

Other political interviews covered ballot propositions, a union strike, presidential impeachment and U.S. Senate, gubernatorial and congressional elections for the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. A Secret Service agent told me in 2000 that I was the only freelance writer granted credentials to cover both major party conventions. That I extensively covered the most historic U.S. presidential election in history—contested to the Supreme Court—concretized and elucidated that, whatever my interviews’ impact, philosophy trumps politics.

Movie Interviews

Though I’d been writing about film since 1993, I decided to do in-depth interviews after being contracted to write for an online movie publication in 2002. As a matter of creating guidelines for the start-up partnership, which gave me an equity stake as compensation, I used an interview process which subverted Hollywood’s status quo.

Having observed that books and politics were topics strictly controlled for interviews based on terms and conditions set by publishers, publicists and power-brokers (in keeping with their biased agendas and notoriously tight timeframes), I rejected these standards. With support from the company and website founder, I interviewed movie industry artists who’d been neglected, underappreciated or underestimated and/or without studio publicity preconditions. This was both easier than one might expect and disruptive to—and unpopular with—those served by perpetuating the status quo.

Among the interviews were wide-ranging conversations with:

• Filmmakers Sydney Pollack, Lasse Hallstrom, Volker Schlondorff, Martha Coolidge and Alejandro Amenabar about movies on religionism, sex, Communism, Nazis, sexism, romanticism, euthanasia and the right to die

• The Waltons creator Earl Hamner, with whom I remained friends until he died, posted a link to our interview—which we conducted at his Studio City, California office, on his website

• Directors Christopher Nolan, Mike Binder, Thomas Carter, Robert Benton and Jon Turteltaub on movies featuring Batman, the U.S. Constitution, racism, alcoholism, medical neurosurgery and the self-made family

• Actors Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen, James Marsden and John Leguizamo

• Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook, historian Leonard Maltin and Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, to whom I often turned for an interview about movie stars (Robert Redford, John Wayne, Liza Minnelli, Lizabeth Scott, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn)

My movie interviews are my most cited in books, articles and academia.

News Interviews

I think some of my most intelligent interviews are unknown and unread (some are unpublished) on relatively narrow or, alternately, very broad topics.

When I wanted to understand war and military history, I reached out to the late Duke University professor and historian and author John David Lewis, a friend and paid subscriber. I did one of his last interviews, which was published on my blog in 2011. I also met and interviewed Elian Gonzalez at his home days before the boy was seized at gunpoint by the U.S. government and forced to return to Communist Cuba.

The topical interviews include:

• Dr. Amesh Adalja on the Ebola virus

• Shoshana Milgram on Ayn Rand in Chicago

• Washington, DC, journalist Jack Germond

• An Occidental College scholar about Los Angeles history for the Los Angeles Times

• ABC News reporter and commentator John Stossel

• Melissa Manchester on her career in music, movies and the arts

• Children’s book author Chris Van Allsburg

• David Halberstam on Michael Jordan

• Biographer Richard Zoglin on Bob Hope

• Dion Neutra on architecture, his dad, Richard Neutra and designing a memorial for the battlefield at Gettysburg

• Olivia Newton-John on her extraordinary life and career

• U.S. Marine and author Martin Russ on the Korean War

• Composers Schifrin, Menken, Portman and Desplat on making music for movies

• Brandeis University film scholar Thomas Doherty denouncing the university for uninviting Ayaan Hirsi Ali as a guest speaker after an Islamic smear campaign

In 30 years of journalism, mine are interviews which cover war, news, sports, humor and the arts. I’ve learned that interviews stall, go off topic, even off track, and that the proper technique integrates one’s knowledge, courtesy and the ability to demonstrate the desire to learn. An interview begins with an insatiably curious mind.

The interview is an essential part of the free press. I’ve recently conducted new interviews in Pittsburgh and I plan to select and publish some of the unpublished interviews in a book. My interview wish list is getting shorter. There are fewer and fewer interested and credible outlets. But, with Autonomia and other media, I’m on it.

---

Related Articles

Interview: John David Lewis (2011)

Just Deserts: Editor Charles Levendosky

My Writing Method